Classical Music Gets a Modern Update in the Hands of Violinist Tim Fain

On a September day, violinist Tim Fain, who had arrived in Manhattan the previous evening from California, is still on West Coast time when we meet at a lunchtime spot, and is trying to order a breakfast egg and an orange juice in a sea of midtown salads. In a few hours, he and composer Philip Glass are flying to Rio to embark on a ten-day tour, which, if it bears any resemblance to their European engagements, will captivate and dazzle audiences. “One thing that really gets me going is the connection with the audience, breaking down boundaries,” he says, taking a sip of orange juice (no dice on the egg). “My goal is to take these classical pieces, which can be pretty complicated, and make them as simple and direct as possible and get across what I feel are the most important elements.”

Fain, who stands a lanky six-foot-two and holds a furious bow and a resolute expression when he plays, first picked up the violin at age six. He left Los Angeles for the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, followed by a master’s program at the Juilliard School. While the 35-year-old’s ascent in the world of classical music certainly hasn’t been hurt by his relationship with Glass (the two met while working on a performance of Leonard Cohen’s Book of Longing), it’s possible you first encountered him elsewhere: in the maniacal Tchaikovsky underpinning Natalie Portman’s footwork in Black Swan; as the sound of Richard Gere’s violin in Bee Season; as one of the cherubic voices in the background of Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun (“I sang in the boys’ choir when I was a kid. . . I feel like I’ve got movies running through my veins”) or, maybe, last winter at jeweler Erickson Beamon’s presentation, during which ballerinas from the Bolshoi Ballet Academy spun circles around Fain’s melodies. Or perhaps you remember him as the impromptu entertainment on a flight stalled on the runway in Minneapolis: “The very vivacious flight attendant noticed I had a violin,” he says, smiling. “So I played a fiddle tune and a little Bach movement in the aisle.”

Fain officially steps into his own headline this weekend with the opening of Portals, a multimedia, multigenre production at New York’s Symphony Space that combines music, film, and dance, helmed by a juggernaut of the most talented young artists at work in each field: music by Nico Muhly, performances by Juilliard dancers Haylee Nichele, Julia Eichten, and Craig Black; choreography and direction by Benjamin Millepied, and piano by Nicholas Britell. There are also contributions from members of Fain’s more seasoned circle: a piece composed by Glass and spoken-word poetry by Cohen.

The idea in putting together a live performance/video hybrid (Fain performs onstage; the piano, dance, spoken word, and other narratives play out on a film screen behind him) was to simulate logging in, ever frequently the mode by which we engage—and exist—in an iPhone age. “I’ve always been fascinated by how visuals make sound more clear,” says Fain. “I wanted to expand on what a performance can be. Plenty of people use video, but I wanted to make something that really reflected growing up with Skype and Facebook—I mean, I’m addicted to my phone as much as everybody else, but I wanted to use that for something compelling and beautiful.” There is something to be said for a classical artist who can hop on a tour bus with Leonard Cohen as easily as he can envision a violin movement as a representation of Gchat. “I feel like this is the calm before the storm,” Fain says as he finishes his juice, grabs his eighteenth-century Francesco Gobetti violin and his iPhone, and heads off to Brazil.